Waiting for Rain: Reflections at the Turning of the Year - Hardcover

Levy, Bryna Jocheved

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0827608411 ISBN 13: 9780827608412

Publisher: JEWISH PUBLICATON SOCIETY, 2008

Synopsis

In Israel, the High Holiday cycle marks the transition from summer to the rainy season.

In Waiting for Rain, the acclaimed teacher Bryna Levy offers a compelling collection of meditations that examine the biblical and liturgical readings associated with the High Holidays, from Rosh Hashanah to Simhat Torah. Based on a series of lectures given in Jerusalem at Matan - the Women’s Institute for Torah Studies, and known as “The Hoshana Rabbah Lectures,” Levy’s readings of the traditional texts echo the natural and spiritual tenor of this season.

Waiting for Rain joins the field of biblical interpretation known as parshanut ha-mikrah. It offers fresh insights into traditional rabbinic interpretation, together with the author’s perspective as a modern Orthodox woman bible scholar. Levy explores the psyches of the biblical characters and addresses issues such as our connectedness to others, the tragedy of wasted opportunity, confronting evil, the denial of death, faith and doubt, personal and communal responsibility, universalism versus particularism, the challenge of leadership, sin and atonement, and the efficacy of prayer. The result is a highly personal approach to the meaning of the High Holidays that resonates with our own modern lives. Stories about heroes and heroines, love, faith, hope, and dreams make this book a moving and engaging source for study and reflection as well as an excellent companion to the traditional High Holiday prayer services. To read more about Bryna Jocheved Levy and her work, visit her website.

About this title

About the Author

Dr. Bryna Jocheved Levy is one of the most esteemed Bible teachers in Israel and a leader in the movement for Torah studies for women. She was the first woman awarded a doctoral degree in biblical studies by Yeshiva University. She has taught at the Jerusalem College for Women, founded the Israeli branch of Touro College, and been a guest scholar for the Wexner Heritage Foundation and the Gesher Foundation. Currently she teaches at Midreshet Moriah and serves as the director of the joint graduate program in biblical studies of Matan--the Women's Institute for Torah Studies and the University of Haifa.

From the Back Cover

Waiting for Rain Reflections at the Turning of the Year Bryna Jocheved Levy

Surveying the parched earth at the end of a long, dry summer, the farmer waits for rain, as did his predecessors, who tilled the same fields before him. The cisterns are empty and the springs have ceased to flow; throats are dry and voices are muted. The season is replete with expectancy and yearning, with the hope for rain that is the hope for life. It is a time of reflecting on the past harvest gathered in, and anticipating harvests that may come. It is a moment poised on the edge of eternity. - From the Preface

In Israel the High Holy Day cycle marks the transition from summer to the rainy season. In Waiting for Rain acclaimed Bible teacher Bryna Levy offers a compelling collection of meditations that examine the biblical and liturgical readings associated with these holidays. Integrating contemporary biblical scholarship and literary studies with fresh readings of traditional medieval and Rabbinic interpretation, Levy's insights will illuminate and inspire. Stories about heroes and heroines, love, faith, hope, and dreams make Waiting for Rain a moving and engaging source for study and reflection.

A book of Torah commentary, Waiting for Rain inspires readers by taking a fresh look at the traditional text. The volume grew from a series of lectures Levy gives in Jerusalem each fall, in which she joins insights from contemporary biblical scholarship and literary studies with her own perspective as a modern Orthodox female Bible scholar.

Examining the liturgical and biblical readings associated with the High Holy Days, Levy explores the psyches of biblical characters and addresses issues such as: our connectedness to others; the tragedy of wasted opportunity; confronting evil; the denial of death; faith and doubt; personal and communal responsibility; universalism versus particularism; the challenge of leadership; sin and atonement; and the efficacy of prayer.

The result is a compelling and enlightening companion to the High Holy Days cycle.

Bryna Jocheved Levy is a senior lecturer in Bible at Matan, The Women's Institute for Torah Studies, where she is also the founder and director of the graduate program in Bible, a joint program with Hebrew University. Levy has a master's degree in biblical interpretation from McGill University and, in 1987, was the first woman to be awarded a Ph.D. in Bible from Yeshiva University.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Preface

Surveying the parched earth at the end of a long, dry summer, the farmer waits for rain, as did his predecessors, who tilled the same fields before him. The cisterns are empty and the springs have ceased to flow; throats are dry and voices are muted. The season is replete with expectancy and yearning, with the hope for rain that is the hope for life. It is a time of reflecting on the past harvest gathered in, and anticipating harvests that may come. It is a moment poised on the edge of eternity.

When the clouds finally burst and the first drops grace the ground, nature sighs with relief. The earth absorbs and ardently guards every drop, mysteriously transforming heavenly moisture into the power of life and sustenance. Plants begin to sprout, buds appear on trees, and flowers bloom. Man lifts up his voice in song, his prayers having been answered from on high. Rain is where heaven and earth meet.

For as the rain and the snow fall from heaven

And return not there,

But soak the earth

And make it bring forth vegetation,

Yielding seed for the sower

And bread for the eater.

So is the word that issues from My mouth.

It does not come back to Me unfulfilled,

But performs what I purpose,

Achieves what I sent it to do. (Isa. 55:10-11)

The poignant words of the prophet Isaiah highlight the parallel between rain and the word of God, which quenches our existential thirst and revitalizes our desiccated souls. The metaphor captures our need for deliverance. Our souls are broken fields plowed by pain. We long for refreshment, for a renewal of faith in a world in which our beliefs have withered. We hope to recapture our sense of amazement and to rebuild our trust in ourselves, in others, and in our responses to life. We pray that truth--shadowed by death, despair, and vulnerability--will once again come to light.

As the month of Tishrei draws to a close, the sun's fierceness begins to abate. Cooler breezes at eventide promise respite from the summer's scorching days. The afternoon shadows now offer a modicum of relief. Eyes turn heavenward looking for a wisp of cloud, for any clement harbinger of the first rains of autumn. But there is no surcease, no life-giving moisture to slake the thirst of the people and their flocks, or to revive the earth.

As lonely wanderers in the great desert of life, we make our way across trackless wastes of meaninglessness, searching for oases of cooling drafts of spiritual refreshment, where we may imbibe deeply of the waters of the living God. The prayer for rain is an appeal for the revival of our souls.

King David gives expression to the spirit of man, parched and yearning for God:

My soul thirsts for You,

My body yearns for You,

In a sere and weary land that has no water.

I shall behold You in the sanctuary And see Your might and

glory. (Ps. 63:2-3) [author's translation]

This transition is paralleled by the mystical transformation of the Days of Awe. Rosh Hashanah becomes Hoshana Rabbah as, at the end of the day, the aravot fall to the ground and the white kittel is folded and put away for another year. The etrog is consigned to citron jelly and the lulav to fuel for burning the Passover hametz. Yom Kippur glides into Shemini Atzeret, which is characterized in talmudic law by a single practice: the insertion into our prayers of the simple declaration, Mashiv ha-ruah u-Morid ha-geshem--God causes the wind to blow and the rain to fall.

This, our first reflection at the turning of the year, is, in essence, the final prayer of the penitential season. And so our eyes seek the Master of the Universe, longing for Him to restore our spirits, just as He causes the rain to fall.

Edition details

• Publisher: JEWISH PUBLICATON SOCIETY
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0827608411
• ISBN 13: 9780827608412
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 300